Chloe and Chuck Vs The Russian and The Robot
by Isabel5
Summary: Chloe/Oliver, Chuck/Sarah implied.  Chloe makes a trip to the Buy More for some supplies but a shopping trip is never just a shopping trip, especially when a certain Nerd Herder/Super spy gets involved.  Just a case of wrong place wrong time.


**Title**: Chloe and Chuck Vs The Russian and The Robot  
**Fandom**: Smallville/Chuck Crossover  
**Pairing**: Chloe/Oliver, Chloe Chuck friendship, Chuck/Sarah implied  
**Rating**: MA  
**Spoilers**: AU Future fic for Smallville - set after the events of this season. For Chuck after the end of Season 2.  
**Summary:** Chloe makes a trip to the Buy More for some supplies but a shopping trip is never just a shopping trip, especially when a certain Nerd Herder/Super spy gets involved. Just a case of wrong place wrong time.  
**Disclaimer:** Don't own either Chuck or Smallville. Really want.  
**Author's Note:** So this is a birthday present (a few days late - sorry) for the wonderful, amazingly talented tehzo who is kind enough to indulge me and my many many requests for her beautiful beautiful art! The concept for this was born out of a comment she made to my fic Planting Rutabagas where Chloe worked at the Best Buy Geek Squad. Hope you enjoy it because you really do deserve it!

* * *

Chloe climbed out of the car and hit the lock button on the key remote before sliding it into her pocket. "This is my last stop, Oliver. If they don't have everything here I'll…I don't know actually but I'll figure it out. I always do," Chloe said her voice tired.

_"If we want to do this, we've only got one more shot_,_" _Oliver reminded her. _"We've got to get in there tonight because tomorrow morning Aleksi's on a plane back to Russia and we're screwed." _

"I know," Chloe said frustrated. "Don't you think I know that?"

_"He wants to talk to you_,_"_ Oliver said, drawing Chloe out of her thoughts as she walked to the door.

"No," Chloe said into the phone annoyed as she cut through the small appliances isle, her eyes zeroed in on her destination. "I'm still not talking to him, don't you dare put him on the phone." She made her way up to the desk in the middle of the store.

"_Chloe give him a break_," Oliver tried one more time.

"Why should I?" Her tone was equal parts annoyed and incredulous. "I told him no less than seven times not to touch my stuff, and Bart did what he always does, he didn't listen and because of that you guys almost got killed. Does he understand how extremely pissed off I am?"

_"Of course he does_,_" _Oliver said. _"And he feels horrible about what happened, but it was your decision to go in remember. I said we could scrap it, regroup and come back fresh and you didn't want to risk it." _

"So now it's my fault?" Chloe asked him.

_"No, it's nobody's fault." _Oliver groaned. _"Look, he made a mistake yesterday, he feels horrible about it and yeah, you made a mistake too so I'm just saying…give him a break." _

"Look, the faster I can find this stuff, the faster I can get back so I gotta go." She hung up the phone, took a deep breath and closed her eyes for a second. She knew Oliver was right. Bart shouldn't have touched her stuff but she should have called it off, they were both to blame here and when this was all over she'd apologize, maybe take him out to dinner to make up for the massive bitch she'd been for the past twenty four hours.

She blamed Aleksi.

::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::

Aleksi Yanovskiy was proving to be an even more formidable foe than Lex Luthor and that was causing no small amount of stress in Chloe's life. He'd come to Oliver's attention, not through the League but rather the board room. Aleksi seemed to come out of nowhere about a year ago. He was the head of one of the largest technologies company in Russia which was also basically the only technologies company in Russia. Russia had never even been a presence in the tech community, certainly not on an international scale, until Aleksi came along.

Then suddenly he was everywhere, competing with Queen Industries in every area from commercial product innovations to government contracts. Oliver enjoyed it at first, he lived for the competition, loved that there was finally someone out there that could challenge him in a way no other company or even person had been able to before. He and Aleksi even seemed to get along, though the papers continually described their relationship as something more akin to a feud, Oliver actually considered Aleksi a friend. At first.

Then Aleksi stole something from Oliver. In the middle of a heated DOD contract bid, Aleksi poached one of Oliver's top scientist's from S.T.A.R. Lab's R&D department, and along with him, the schematics for a satellite-based missile defense system Oliver had been working on for five years.

From then on it was war. Oliver would steal investors from Aleksi and Aleksi would sabotage Oliver's projects. Chloe and Natasha, Aleksi's wife, seemed to find the whole thing amusing. The two women had gotten to know each other rather well, finding themselves more often than not at the same charity balls, the same dinner parties, the same boring government functions that their respective significant other's felt the need to drag them too. They refused to let Oliver and Aleksi's feud dictate the terms of their relationship and continued to be good friends even after the boys had a falling out.

This fact had bothered Oliver immensely, that was until he realized that he could use their relationship, use Chloe's friendship with Natasha to his advantage. He'd begged and pleaded with Chloe to turn spy, to try and dig information out of Natasha.

_"She doesn't know anything_,_" Chloe finally snapped one evening over dinner. "Aleksi doesn't talk about his work with her, and even if he did she wouldn't tell me and I wouldn't want her to. He's her husband_,_ Oliver_,_" Chloe pointed out. "How would you feel if I spilled all your secrets to her?" Chloe asked, storming away from the table. _

Oliver had been thoroughly chastised after that, apologizing profusely to Chloe and promising to respect her relationship with the woman and stay firmly out of it. And for the most part he did, he never bothered Chloe about Natasha and he even managed to be civil to Aleksi for a while, but they both knew that wouldn't last.

**6 months ago…**

_Oliver walked into the penthouse, his tie already halfway over his head. It was late, past two in the morning, all the lights were off so Oliver assumed Chloe was asleep. It had been a long day and all he wanted was to scarf down a quick bite to eat and crawl into bed next to Chloe and sleep for eighteen hours straight. He grabbed a cartoon of spicy beef chicken from the fridge, leftover from the other night and didn't bother to even heat it up. He carried it into the living room, so hungry he was eating it with his fingers when he saw her sitting on the couch. _

_"Chloe?" he asked cautiously. She had a faraway look in her eyes and in her hand a large glass of red wine. From the look of the near empty bottle on the coffee table it wasn't her first. "What are you doing up?" He sat down next to her and that's when he saw what she was looking at. There was a small metal plate in her hands, wires sticking out of the back of it. "What's this?" /_

_"We need to talk about Aleksi_,_" Chloe said downing the rest of the wine in her glass and looking up at Oliver. "Natasha and I were planning on going shopping tonight. We both needed a dress for the Governor's ball next week. I met her at the Penthouse." Chloe reached out and poured the remaining wine in her glass. "Aleksi's in town. He wasn't there tonight but I could tell, whenever he's in town there are pieces of his latest project scattered all over the place. Normally I ignore it because if I don't look at it_,_ then I don't know what he's doing and if I don't know_,_ then I don't feel bad keeping the information from you." Oliver smiled sweetly at her. "But something caught my eye…I don't know what it was. When Natasha went to grab her coat I walked over to his work station and I found this." Chloe held up the small disc. "There was something so familiar about it, I couldn't place it but I knew I'd seen it before or something like it and when Natasha came back I didn't even think, I just slipped it in my purse." _

_"Chloe…" Oliver set the cartoon of food on the coffee table. "I would never ask you steal for me_,_ you know that right?"_

_"It wasn't about you_,_" Chloe said shaking her head. "I'd seen it before_,_ I knew I had and it took me a while to remember where but when I did, God I almost threw up." _

_"What is it?" Oliver asked pulling the piece out of her fingers. _

_"I think it's a prototype for a portable power source but I don't know for sure, not until I can do a few more tests. But I know the tech." She looked up at him. "It's identical to the stuff that Lex put in Victor." _

_Oliver's head shot up at this and he stared at Chloe. "What do you mean?" _

_"I recognize the design. I recognize the craftsmanship. Over the years I've had more than enough time to study what was done to Victor, the components, the way it was constructed." _

_"So what are you saying?" Oliver asked, dreading the answer. _

_"I'm saying whoever created Victor, created this." Chloe plucked the disc from Oliver's hand. "And Aleksi created this, so…"_

_"Aleksi created Victor_,_" Oliver finished for her. _

::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::

She'd done more research after that, it wasn't too hard to find what she needed, now that she knew what she was looking for. It had always seemed strange to her when Aleksi showed up that no one had known anything about him. She'd done a cursory check of his background but nothing popped out at her. Now everything popped out at her. The more she dug the more she realized that none of it was real, from his school records to his family history. It took a little over two weeks but Chloe finally figured it all out.

Aleksi had been Lex's protégé of sorts. A technological genius. Lex had found him toiling away in obscurity for some silicon valley firm and recognized that there was more to him. He'd nurtured him, given him unlimited resources and it paid off. Every single technological advance at LuthorCorp had been Aleksi's genius. Then Lex sent Aleksi to work at SynTechnics, the lab where Victor's bionic parts were created.

Chloe scoured every piece of evidence they ever found on Victor's "upgrades" and noticed something she'd never seen before, on the bottom of all the blueprints for the bionic parts were two letters: A.Y. Chloe had thought they were reference codes but now she knew what they were, the inventor's initials, Aleksi Yanovskiy.

SynTechnics had been shut down but Lex made sure to take care of Aleksi, keeping him employed and very much in the loop on most of his more nefarious activities. After Lex's death, Aleksi apparently took it upon himself to continue those activities, using money left to him by Lex to start his own company, using it as a front, taking over where Lex left off.

From that point on, Aleksi had become an obsession of hers. She spent every waking hour and used every available resource, including the guys, trying to figure out what Aleksi was up to and when she'd figured it out, she actually did throw up.

After months and months of searching, she finally stumbled upon a set of schematics, almost completely by accident, for a full body bionic transformation. He was planning on making another Victor, only this one would be stronger and faster and equipped with an even more advanced mind control chip than the one Lex had wanted to install in Victor. He'd be unstoppable.

They'd launched a full scale assault but no matter what they did, they couldn't penetrate any of Aleksi's defenses. Perhaps it was a byproduct of growing up in Soviet Russia but Aleksi kept everything under lock and key, all communications were in code, all facilities sealed up tighter than Fort Knox. He was also getting paranoid. It seemed the closer he got to the project's completion, the more secretive he got. He only kept to a very tight circle of fiercely loyal advisors, didn't talk to anyone else, hardly even his wife. Apparently the paranoia and protection spread to her though and he had recently taken to keeping her under a very strict house arrest, which made it impossible for Chloe to use her as a way to get to him.

Last night had been the first time in a long time that Chloe had even seen Natasha in months. When Oliver found out that Aleksi had planned to be in LA for the American Cancer Society's More Birthdays' fundraiser, he and Chloe had driven down for the weekend. His home and office in Moscow was impenetrable so they hoped while he was in the states, they could find something, anything to help them out, figure out a way to stop him or at least a way to get into the Moscow plants.

He worked from home so Chloe and Oliver were going to schmooze at the ball, come back to the hotel and slip into Watchtower and Green Arrow mode before the guys tried to get into his LA house. Only while Chloe and Oliver were at the ball, Bart was doing something he was most definitely not supposed to be doing, which resulted in him destroying half of Chloe's portable Watchtower system.

They'd tried to go ahead with the plan anyway, working with the limited resources available to them but Aleksi was smarter than that and the second Chloe hacked into his system she was found out, compromising the entire mission. The guys barely got out of the place alive. It was risky going back in tonight but they didn't have a choice, if they didn't get him now, they might never get him.

So not trying again was simply out of the question, but it didn't mean that Chloe was going to go in there handicapped, which is how she found herself standing at the Burbank Buy More, a list of equipment in her hand and her fingers crossed that hopefully they would have everything she needed.

::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::

Chloe collapsed against the edge of the Nerd Herder desk and stared at the two men behind the counter who seemed to be involved in a very heated discussion. "How can you even think that the Batmobile could possibly compare to Optimus Prime?" the partially bald guy with Lester on his name tag asked, his voice rising incredulously. "It's Optimus Prime, he's a freaking alien robot, do you even get that?"

"I'm not saying that it's better than Optimus overall I'm saying if you compare the Batmobile to Optimus _in truck form_ it's the better car." The green shirted employee whose name tag read Morgan explained. "I mean it's the Batmobile. In truck form that's all Optimus Prime is, a truck."

"Excuse me, " Chloe tried to interject and they simply ignored her.

"OK, I might be willing to give you that one, " Lester said. "But after the truck turns into Optimus Prime…"

"Oh totally kicks the Batmobile's ass, hands down." Morgan nodded.

"Can I help you?" a voice asked from behind her and Chloe spun around to see a taller guy, Nerd Herder uniform on, smiling at her and shooting glares at Morgan and Lester who just seemed to realize they had a customer waiting.

"I hope so Chuck." Chloe squinted at the man's name tag. She offered him a tired smile and passed over her list. "If you can tell me that you have at least half of the things on that list then you might just make my day." He smiled and took the paper scanning down it.

"What if I told you I had everything on this list?" he asked moving around her toward the back of the store.

"Well then, I'd just have to marry you." Chloe flashed him a bright smile and he laughed.

"I just might hold you to that." He grabbed a basket and motioned for her to follow him and she did.

"OK, but my boyfriend's the jealous type so we'd have to run away together, " Chloe warned him. "You don't have a problem with that do you?"

"Are you kidding?" Chuck smiled over his shoulder. "I've just been waiting for an excuse to ditch the Buy More, I'm lucky you came along when you did." Chloe laughed for the first time in two days and it felt good. "Most of this stuff's not going to be on the floor so I'll just grab what I need out of the back, then we can get the rest."

Chloe smiled her thanks and waited as he disappeared into the store room.

Something out of the corner of her eye caught her attention and she turned to the front of the store where two men in suits were walking in. There was something vaguely familiar about them, she'd seen them at the last two shops she'd been too. Knowing her line of work, that was likely not just a coincidence so she pulled her phone out, snapped their picture and sent it to her face recognition software program back at the Watchtower.

"And that's almost everything, " Chuck said, emerging from the back room with a basket full of goodies and Chloe smiled, sliding her phone back in her pocket and following him around the store. "So what happened?"

"My computer crashed," Chloe said, keeping a surreptitious eye on the two guys. "Not on its own of course, it had a little unsolicited help."

"I know how that goes," Chuck assured her. "Big gamer?"

"What?" Chloe looked over at him confused as she dropped three terabyte hard drives in the basket. "No, why would you think that?"

"I don't know." He smiled and waved the list at her. "This list you gave me has more specialized tech on it than a NASA flight simulator, so either you've got one hell of a gaming system or you're building a super computer so powerful the only thing it can possibly be used for is to take over the world."

Chloe stared over her shoulder as the guys made their way through the store then turned to Chuck and her face broke out into a huge grin. "Well you've figured out my master plan; World Domination." She took the pack of cords he handed her and he laughed. "So now that you know, what will you do with me? Turn me in I suppose?"

"That depends." Chuck grabbed a few more things that were on her list and dumped them into the basket. "Why exactly are you trying to take over the world?" He stopped and turned to her. "I mean, maybe you've got a good reason."

"Pineapples," Chloe said quickly, remembering where she'd seen the two men before. She and Natasha had been browsing the farmers market a few weeks ago and she's seen them out of the corner of her eye.

_"Don't look know but I think those guys are following us_,_" Chloe whispered, grabbing a pineapple from a fruit vendor and testing the weight in her hand. _  
_  
Natasha frowned and did exactly what Chloe told her not to do, she turned and looked, then she laughed. "Yeah, they work for Aleksi. He's been super protective lately, decided last week I needed bodyguards." Natasha rolled her eyes. "Mainly they keep their distance and don't bother me. Just ignore them." _

Chloe wished she could ignore them now but she couldn't. She paused when she felt a different set of eyes on her and turned to see Chuck staring at her in confusion.

"You're taking over the world because of pineapples?"

It was Chloe's turn to be confused. She had no idea what pineapples had to do with taking over the world, then she remembered what they'd been talking about before and winced. "Well, yeah. I mean they're a severely underrated fruit and something has to be done," Chloe said trying to save face. "Obviously their bulky size and prickly skin prevent them from being the ideal on the go fruit but there's more to them than just a thick spiky exterior."

"Such as their delicious interior," Chuck offered.

"Exactly." Chloe laughed. "I considered writing my local 4H club but thought total world domination would be the easier way to go."

"Well, I am a fan of the tropical fruits." Chuck passed her the last item from her list. "So I think just this once I can look the other way."

"That is a load off my mind." Chloe checked over her shoulder, they hadn't spotted her yet but there was no doubt in her mind that they were following her, which meant her cover might be blown, which mean that Oliver's cover might be blown. "You've been a big help, really. You have no idea how much you just saved me. I appreciate it," Chloe told him sincerely.

"Sure no problem." Chuck shrugged. "Just doing my job."

He watched as the girl made her way to the front of the store to check out. There was something a little off about her. She'd been friendly enough but she seemed sort of distracted. He frowned as she casually turned down the digital camera display, continually glancing across the room. Chuck followed her gaze to two men by the gaming section and he felt that familiar twinge behind his eyes as he flashed. Images flew almost faster than he could see them.

_A map of Russia, Moscow circled in red._

_A flag flapping in the wind, red background, small gold Hammer and Sickle in the top left corner._

_Two dossiers, pictures of the two men and a rap sheet a mile long, a big red stamp on the top that read, "Confirmed: Former KGB"_

_Security footage of an alley way, the two men from the Buy More assassinating another man, his blood staining the ice a deep red, steaming rising from this still warm body into the cold air. _

"Oh no." Chuck swallowed. "Russian spies, why did it have to be Russian spies?" He looked around for Casey but of course when Chuck needed him, he was nowhere to be found.

He pulled out his phone to call Sarah when the two guys attention was drawn across the Buy More, Chuck followed their line of sight back to the blonde girl. He saw her notice them noticing her and she cursed as they made their way over to her, dropping her basket haphazardly to a shelf and pulling her phone out. She flipped the phone over, pulled the back off, slid the battery out and pulled something out. Before Chuck could see what it was, she slid it into her mouth and swallowed it then dropped the phone to the ground, sliding it underneath the shelf with her foot.

There was no way that Sarah would get there in time so hung up and looked around once more but Casey was still nowhere to be seen, so Chuck cursed and made his way over to the blonde as she ducked behind displays. She was so intent on her destination, the doors Chuck supposed, that she was about to turn a corner, smack dab into one of the Russian's just as Chuck got to her.

"Hey!" he whispered frantically, then reached out and grabbed her arm, pulling her back into the isle. Her sleeve slid up a bit revealing a small tattoo on her wrist of a shield and three green arrows. His eyes tingled and flashed.

_Security footage of the interior of a museum—the Cairo Museum. It was after closing time, the place was empty except for two figures moving through the rooms undisturbed. There was a taller man, dressed head to foot in what looked like leather, a hood covered his head, glasses obscured his eyes and there was a compound bow hanging loosely in his right hand. Walking beside him is a short figure, obviously female based on the curves visible under the skintight leather suit she's wearing as well. Her features are also covered by a hood and sunglasses but when she reaches out for the control panel on the wall the sleeve of her left arm slid up to reveal a small tattoo, right on the inside of her wrist. The image zoomed closer and closer until the tattoo was clearly visible, the same one that Chuck had seen on the blonde's wrist. _

_A dossier, the picture attached is the image of the woman from the museum, hood and glasses covering her face. Listed under name is Watchtower, under known allies a list of names: Black Canary, Aquaman, Impulse and others. References were made to someplace called Smallville and a note was written along the bottom suggesting a long term exposure to something called GreenK._

"Watchtower?" Chuck whispered when the flash ended and Chloe visibly froze.

"How did you-" But she never got to finish the sentence as the cold barrel of a gun was pressed into the back of her neck.

"Aleksi would like a word." Goon #1 said, his accent thick and Chloe closed her eyes.

"OK, guys look, there's no need…with the guns." Chuck swallowed slowly rising to his feet. "She's not a part of this, she has nothing to do with this OK, just let her go and I'll come quietly."

Goon #2 turned Goon #1 and frowned. "Who is this?"

"I do not know, but we will be bringing him also, just in case."

"No. I'll go but we will not be bringing him. He's not a part of this," Chloe protests, stepping between Chuck and the goons.

Chuck looks between Chloe and the two Russians and nods slowly. "You know for once, I really don't think I am a part of this, so I'm just going to—" He made a move to turn around but a strong arm gripped his elbow and held him in place. "Or not."

"We go. And do not be trying any funny business. We will shoot," Goon #2 said, pushing Chuck forward slightly, the barrel of his gun pressed into Chuck's back forcing him to walk.

"Just do what they say OK?" Chloe grabbed onto Chucks other arm and walked out beside him. As they left, Chuck did one last desperate check of the Buy More for any sign of Casey but came up empty. He turned his attention then to the slight blonde woman beside him. She didn't seem afraid, on the contrary she seemed perfectly calm and collected. She studied the men intently, made a calculated inventory of their surroundings as if trying to assess the situation fully, possibly come up with some sort of plan. But before anything could be executed a large black SUV came to a screeching halt in front of them. The side door was flung open and both Chuck and the girl were shoved inside. The door was closed behind them and the car sped away from the Buy More and away from Chuck's only hope at a rescue.

His phone rang in his hand and he forgot that he was even holding it. He saw Sarah's name and picture flash on the screen before one of the goons grabbed it from him, rolled down the window and tossed it onto the highway.

"Search them," a man said from the front passengers seat, turning around and looking them over. "Get rid of everything, wallets, jewelry, phones."

"Dmitri," Chloe said from beside Chuck, addressing the man in the front seat. "Why am I not surprised to see you?" she asked as her earrings were pulled from her ear. The man didn't bother to address her in return but Chuck did notice the edges of his lips curl into what might be considered a smile.

Chuck jumped a bit as a hand found its way into his pocket, pulling out his wallet and tossing it out the window behind Chloe's earrings, followed by his Nerd Herder badge.

"You know, if Aleksi wanted to see me he could have just called. This is slightly overkill." Still the man said nothing. "OK, if this is about the wine I spilled on him last night that was on accident and I apologized," Chloe said firmly and the man in the front snorted.

"It is not about the wine," the man spoke finally, pulling something from his pocket and tossing it into the back seat. Chloe instinctively reached out and caught the object, her eyes widening. Chuck stared down at the disc and felt the Intersect flash.

_A set of plans for something on a computer screen, too technical for Chuck to even understand but a few words did pop out at him: Cybernetics, Bionic. _

_A stack of documents, on the top a memo that reads Test Group A-10 subjects: Unsuccessful, all subjects terminated. Test Group B-25 subjects: Unsuccessful, all subjects terminated. Test Group C-40 subjects: Ready to begin Initial Operation Stage. A handwritten note scribble in the margin proclaimed: Initial stage postponed until such a time as access is gained to Subject Beta 9.1._

Chuck shook his head, coming out of the flash to see Chloe still staring at the object in her hand.

"Crap," Chloe said, flipping the power source prototype that she'd stolen from Aleksi a few months ago over and over in her hand, the one that she had locked up in the Watchtower vault before coming to Los Angeles. "How did you get this?" she asked.

"Your security system is very good," Dmitri acknowledged. "But Aleksi, he is better."

Chloe shivered, feeling her skin crawl at the very idea that Aleksi had been anywhere near her Watchtower, much less inside of it, touching her things. "How did he know?" Chloe asked. "What gave me away?"

Dmitri laughed this time and actually pulled the sunglasses from his head to look at her fully. "Miss Sullivan, surely you must realize that Aleksi already knew everything there was to know about you before you even met for the first time? Mr. Luthor made quite sure that he knew exactly who and…what you are."

"Double crap," Chloe grunted and sunk back against the seat.

"Yes, I believe that sums up your situation quite well actually," Dmitri said plucking the prototype from her fingers before turning back to the front.

"This isn't what I meant when I suggested we run away together. I'm Chloe by the way," Chloe turned to Chuck and offered him a small smile, her voice lowered to a whisper, "I don't know what you know or how you know it, but it's going to be OK, I promise you that. We're going to get out of this."

Chuck studied her for a second then looked around the car, he checked the driver, the two goons and the man in the front seat, Dmitri and did some quick calculations in his head. "I can take them," he said suddenly and Chloe turned to him with an unimpressed look.

"No offense or anything but I don't think—"

"Look, I know it sounds ridiculous," Chuck assured her. "I mean look at me-but trust me, I can take them. When the car stops just lay low OK."

"Chuck. My friends are coming, of that I can assure you." Chloe paused and bit her bottom lip. "Just as soon as they realize I'm missing. There's no need to try and play the hero OK."

Chuck nodded but still ran through things in his head. He hadn't had the new Intersect for very long and his most recent attempts at forcing a flash, especially of something physical, like fighting moves, had been completely unsuccessful thus far. But he was relatively assured that as soon as someone pulled a gun, his survival instinct would kick in, spurring the Intersect into action. And if it didn't, well, it's still better than doing nothing.

::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::

"What are you working on?" Oliver walked up behind Victor.

"Trying to piece this thing back together," Victor said typing away. "I mean, he was at the keyboard for like thirty seconds, I don't know how he managed to screw it up so badly." Victor turned around and glared at Bart who was sitting in a chair in the corner, his knee bouncing up and down faster than Victor's eye could register.

"I just wanted to play my game, but it wasn't where it normally is, it's like she moved everything around or something." Bart stood up and Oliver turned around, shook his head and pointed at the chair. "Oh come on, I'm not five."

"Then stop acting like it," Oliver said. "When someone says don't touch something, don't touch it."

"You just told Chloe to give me a break," Bart grumbled plopping back down into the chair.

"For what happened at Aleksi's," Oliver corrected him. "But not for breaking her stuff, that was all you and your gonna have to make that up to her."

"I know." Bart sighed.

"Did you need something?" Victor asked Oliver.

"Yeah, this thing can still handle the basics right?" Oliver motioned to the computer.

"Basic functions, yeah." Victor nodded.

"OK, find Chloe for me," Oliver said and Victor's fingers hovered over the keys.

"No." Victor shook his head.

"Vic," Oliver said.

"Look, you don't track Chloe. I know it doesn't seem fair considering she tracks all of us all the time, " Victor said, "but it's just something you don't do, if you value your man parts."

"She's not answering her phone," Oliver said.

"Yeah, I heard your half of the conversation earlier. She's probably mad at you," Victor said. "In which case, I'm definitely not doing it."

"Seriously Victor, she should have been done at the Buy More like two hours ago. I'm worried." Oliver sat down next to him.

Victor groaned and shook his head. "Look, I couldn't even I wanted to, there's nothing on her to track."

"That's not entirely true." Oliver bit his lip. "You remember those earrings I gave her for her birthday?"

"You didn't," Victor asked him, astonished and Oliver passed over a piece of paper.

"Here's the access code." Oliver stood up and walked away.

"She's gonna kill you." Victor shook his head and pulled up the program he needed. "According to your earrings, she on Interstate 5, just South of Alameda Avenue."

"On her way back?" Oliver asked, letting out a breath.

"No." Victor paused and typed something else. "She's stationary."

Oliver didn't like the sound of that. "Bart." Before he could turn around Bart was out of the chair and in front of him.

"Do a run by?" Bart asked hopefully.

"Don't let her see you, if she's just stuck in traffic or something, she'd kill me."

"Don't worry, I'm like the wind." Bart winked and then he was gone.

"He's like the wind?" Oliver asked Victor, who just snorted.

Less than a minute later he was back, holding a burrito in one hand as he dumped a pile of other things onto the table. "She wasn't there but I found the earrings, along with this stuff," Bart said taking a large bite.

Oliver picked up Chloe's earrings and looked through the other things. There was a wallet, the ID inside belonged to a Charles Bartowski and a Nerd Herder ID badge for a Chuck at the Burbank Buy More and a cell phone that wasn't Chloe's.

"OK, I'm starting to think maybe your right to be worried," Victor called him over. "I just a got a match alert from the facial recognition software program back at the Watchtower."

"I didn't know you were even looking for someone," Oliver said.

"I wasn't…Chloe was." Victor opened up the file attached to the alert and three pictures popped up on the screen. Two were headshots from Russians; ex-KGB agents, matched from a snapshot. "That look like a Buy More to you?" Victor asked pointing at the picture Chloe took.

"Yeah." Oliver nodded. "And I know those guys, they work for Aleksi."

"OK, so we're officially worried now right?" Victor asked.

"Officially more than worried."

::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::

Sarah watched as a woman weighed the differences between two seemingly identical televisions. It had obviously been going on for a while because the vein in the side of Casey's head was really starting to pulse, Sarah was actually afraid it might pop. "The only difference between them is the remote, they're exactly the same, they cost exactly the same, just pick one." Casey growled and Sarah decided it was probably time to intervene.

"OK, can I borrow him for a minute." She smiled and pulled him away before either of them could answer. "Have you seen Chuck? I've been calling him but he's not answering."

"He should be around here somewhere." Casey and Sarah looked through the Buy More but they didn't see him anywhere. "He was here earlier." Casey frowned. He reached out and grabbed a passing green shirt by the collar. "Grimes, where's Bartowski?"

"He was helping this blonde lady earlier but I haven't seen him since," Morgan stuttered. Casey gave him a glare for good measure then let him go and turned to Sarah.

"Castle?" She nodded, a worried expression on her face.

::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::

The rest of the car ride is spent in silence. At some point Dmitri ordered them to be blindfolded and bound and before Chuck knew it the car had come to a stop and he heard the engine cut off. A door opened and they were pulled out, shoved away. Chloe felt something bump into her shoulder and she figured it was probably Chuck. She discovered she was right when he leaned close and whispered in her ear. "Count to ten, then make your way back to the van, we're getting out of here," he said.

Chloe made a move to protest, to point out that she had no idea where the van was, considering she couldn't actually see at the moment when she realized she wasn't counting. She heard a grunt and a thud followed by a crash. Then the blindfold was ripped from her eyes and she saw Chuck being pulled away from her.

His hands were still bound but that didn't seem to be stopping him from kicking some serious ass. Chloe was literally frozen to the spot in awe as he grabbed one of the goons guns and sent it flying across the room, then twisted his wrist and spun, tossing the guy over his shoulder. She never would have imagined that he could do that.

"The van," Chuck panted and tossed something in her direction. Chloe reached out and caught it instinctively only to realize that it was a set of keys.

Chloe headed for the van, her hand almost on the door handle when a gun shot rang out, shattering the van window right next to her head and she ducked before turning around.

"Drop them," Dmitri said, spitting out blood from a cut on his lip. Chloe raised her hands and unclenched her fist, dropping the keys to the ground after she noticed that Dmitri's gun was aimed at Chuck.

"Is there a problem in here?" a voice asked from behind Chloe and she turned, the blood leaving her face when she saw Aleksi Yanovskiy walk into the room. He was in an immaculate three piece suit, not a hair out of place and he was offering her his biggest brightest smile. "I was on a very important phone call." He stepped further into the room, his gaze never leaving Chloe's. "I don't enjoy explaining why things that sound like gunshots, couldn't possibly be gunshots while on said very important phone call." He took a few steps closer to Chloe until they were but a few inches apart.

"Everything is under control, sir," Dmitri said.

"For the moment," Aleksi murmured, unimpressed. "Blindfold them and bring them downstairs."

"Yes, sir." Dmitri said sullenly and once again Chloe was unable to see anything as the black cloth covered her eyes. She was dragged and shoved through doorways and down stairs before the blindfold was removed, this time along with the restraints.

"Who is he?" Aleksi asked his goons and nodded at Chuck.

"Don't know," Dmitri said. "His Nerd Herder ID badge said Chuck Bartowski but beyond that it's anyone's guess."

"Nerd Herder?" Aleksi raised his eyebrows.

"Is like Geek Squad," Goon #1 offered.

"Is not like Geek Squad," Chuck said annoyed. "I mean, it's nothing like Geek Squad, we—" Chuck shut up the second Aleksi turned to him. "Doesn't matter."

"What is he doing here?" Aleksi asked.

"Are you OK?" Chloe asked Chuck quietly.

He nodded at her. "Sorry," he whispered and she offered him a weak smile, trying to assure him it was OK.

"He was with the girl," Goon #2 explained.

"I said to get her when she was alone," Aleksi reminded them.

"You also say you needed her today," Goon #1 pointed out. "She is never alone, so we take the both of them."

Now Aleksi turned to Chloe and raised and eyebrow. "Who is he?" he asked again.

"No one," Chloe choked out.

"Who is he?" Aleksi asked again. "One of your little teammates?"

"No. He's no one, he's not a part of this," Chloe said adamantly.

"OK then." Aleksi smiled and turned to Dmitri. "Shoot him."

"No." Chloe lunged forward, grabbing for Chuck's sleeve, desperately trying to pull him away but she wasn't quick enough. She heard the crack of the bullet leaving the chamber, saw the shocked expression on Chuck's face a second before his whole body jerked with the force of the impact. Her fingers barely grazed the fabric of his sleeve as he fell back, slamming into the dirt covered ground with a loud thud.

She tore herself away from Goon #1 and fell down next to Chuck, pressing her hands desperately against the growing red stain on his abdomen. "You didn't have to do that," Chloe said. "You didn't have to kill him."

"I've not killed him," Aleksi countered.

"You shot him," Chloe snapped.

"Yes I did, but he's not dead yet, is he?" Aleksi said and Chloe looked at him confused. "You can fix him."

"What?" Chloe asked, not sure she hear him correctly.

"You can heal him." Aleksi crouched down next to her.

"I don't…I don't know what you're talking about," Chloe stuttered and Aleksi snorted.

"OK, we can play that game if you want." Aleksi stood up. "Keep your secret and he dies," he said walking to the door. "Or heal him and show me something that I already know, it's up to you." He nodded, indicating for Dmitri and the others to follow him, closing the door behind them.

Chloe looked down at Chuck who's gasping for breath, his eyes wide with fear, blood trickling out of the corner of his mouth and she sighed, dropping her chin to her chest. "Oliver's going to kill me," Chloe whispered, before taking a deep breath and releasing a bit of the pressure she was applying to Chuck's wound.

::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::

Oliver looked over as the phone he assumed belonged to Chuck rang again. The picture of the blonde appeared on the screen again with the name Sarah and Oliver sighed. He really didn't have time to deal with that at the moment. He picked up Chuck's ID badge and tossed it to Victor. "Whatever went down might have gone down at the Buy More, can you get me a look at their security feed?"

"Easy." Victor nodded. "I'm already in."

"OK, I called her at 2:32 and she was walking in the store, so rewind to that." Oliver sat back down and watched the screen as Victor rewound the footage. "There." He pointed to Chloe walking through the doors. They watched her head to the Nerd Herder desk. "That must be Chuck." Oliver watched him carefully as he walked into the back room and Chloe turned around.

"There's Aleksi's men." Victor pointed to the Buy More doors as they walked through.

"And Chloe's spotted them," Oliver said, as she took their picture and slipped the phone back in her pocket with no one noticing. "She's good."

"OK, she's chatting with the nerd." Victor said. "Now she's heading for the register and here's where they spot her." They watch as Chloe crouches down in the isle. "OK, what's the nerd doing?"

"You think he's a part of this?" Bart asked.

"No, I think he's in the wrong place at the wrong time," Oliver said. "Is there a better angle?" He squinted. "I can't really see her."

"No, the camera's are actually very crap for an electronics store." Victor shakes his head annoyed

"Is she eating something?" Bart asked and Oliver pointed at the screen as Chloe's arm dropped to her side and something slipped from her grasp before she kicked it slightly.

"Did she just drop her phone under the shelf?" Oliver asked.

"On it boss," Bart said before disappearing with a puff of air. Victor watched the real time security footage on the monitor as a red blur sped through the store and then back out again. A second later Bart was standing there with Chloe's phone in his hand.

"Her phone! We forgot about her phone, we can track her phone." Victor took it from him.

"We have her phone," Oliver pointed out.

Victor ignored him and flipped it over, sliding the battery out. "Good girl." He smiled, tossing the phone over his shoulder into the trash can.

"What?" Oliver asked.

"She took out the GPS chip, she swallowed it," Victor said typing rapidly.

"Can you track it?" Oliver asked and Victor glared. "Right, your probably doing that already."

"The signal's being blocked," Victor grunted.

"By her stomach?" Bart asked and they both glared at him. "It's a valid question."

"By something else." Victor said.

"Can you get around it?" Oliver asked.

"Not on this." Victor shook his head. "It's not powerful enough." An alarm beeped on his screen and Victor jumped.

"What is that? What does that mean?" Bart asked.

"I don't…" Victor started typing and then frowned. "Someone else is accessing this footage, right now."

"Do you know who?" Oliver asked.

"No, but I can find out." Victor grunted, typing faster and faster. "It's coming from the Buy More, no wait, it's coming from _underneath _the Buy More."

"Underneath the Buy More?" Bart frowned. "What could possibly be underneath the Buy More?"

"I don't know but I'm hacking into their systems now." Victor hit a key and looked up as a slew of windows popped up on the screen.

"Holy shit, what is this place?" Oliver asked, looking through schematics and security protocols.

"Give me a second to tap into their surveillance system and then we can see for ourselves," Victor said. All of the windows were closed and replaced with a split screen of black and white images.

"You seeing what I'm seeing?" Victor asked Oliver, staring at a room with a table and a computer system that Chloe would kill for. Standing in front of said computer system was a blonde woman and taller dark haired man, staring at a screen, watching the same security footage of Chloe and the Nerd Herder they'd just been watching. "I bet that system could get around whatever's blocking Chloe's signal."

"I see it." Oliver acknowledged then let his eyes roam over the other screens. "I also see that." Oliver pointed to the bottom corner. "Is it just me or does that look like a cell?" They both looked at the image on the screen of the small cot stuffed into the corner of a tiny 8x8 room. "OK, I want to know what that is, I want to know how to get in there and I want to know in five minutes," Oliver said.

"I can do it in three." Victor assured him. "You want me to call in AC or Dinah?"

"Not yet." Oliver shook his head. "I need them in Moscow just in case."

"OK, looks like the easiest way in is going to be through the Buy More." Victor turned around. "We're not going to be able suit up for this one."

::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::

Casey stared at the screen and frowned. "Who's the girl?" He nodded at the blonde on the screen. "You recognize her from anywhere?"

"No." Sarah crossed her arms over her chest. "I've never seen her before."

"You think Bartowski knows her?" Casey asked as the blonde stepped in between Chuck and the guy with the gun.

"I don't know." Sarah sighed, just as an alarm rang out through the Castle. "What's that, what's going on?"

"Someone's accessing our systems." Casey growled, grabbing the keyboard and typing rapidly.

"Who?" Sarah asked. "The people who have Chuck?" Casey turned around and glared at her. "Right, you don't know. Can you track them?" Casey glared again. "Right, your probably doing that already."

"Got it. The Marquee Grand hotel in LA, room 1843. Hang on." He typed something else and turned around frowning. "The GPS from Chuck's phone, puts it in the exact same location." Casey headed for the weapons cabinet, Sarah hot on his heels. "Let's do this," he said, tossing a flak jacket over his shoulder and grabbed a few extra clips for his gun.

::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::

Chuck blinked his eyes rapidly, forcing away the sluggishness that usually accompanies massive blood loss. The fact that he was still alive indicated that he must have received some sort of medical attention. But based on the look of the familiar dingy walls that didn't seem to be the case. He pushed himself up to a sitting position and realized he was still in the same room he was when he was shot. It took his eyes a minute to adjust to the darkness and when they did, he sought out Chloe instantly and found her only a few feet away from him, also slowly regaining consciousness. "Chloe!"

He scrambled over to her as she brought a shaky hand up to her stomach in a desperate attempt to staunch the blood that was pouring out of her. "What happened?" Chuck asked, pulling her hand away to study the wound. He recognized the wound immediately as a bullet wound. "Did they shoot you too?" His hand flew to his own stomach where they'd hit him and froze when there was nothing there; no wound, no blood, nothing, like it never happened.

"No." Chloe shook her head and sat up further.

"What did you do?" Chuck asked as she grabbed the edge of her shirt and pulled, ripping off a strip of fabric and pressed it against the wound.

"Nothing, don't worry about it." She coughed, small droplets of blood escaping from her lips.

"Don't worry about it?" Chuck asked. "You're bleeding all over the floor a-a-and _I'm_ not."

"Are you complaining because you're not bleeding?" Chloe smiled.

Chuck let out a small laugh. "No, of course not. They shot me. I was shot. I just don't understand _why_ I'm not bleeding."

"I'd tell you but then I'd have to kill you and that would…you know…sort of defeat the whole purpose of healing you." Chloe paused and blinked a few times as Chuck caught on.

"_Healing me_?" Chuck asked, his voice raising a few octaves. "You healed me?"

"I can't believe I just let that slip," Chloe said. "I hate blood loss, it make my brain all murky." She pushed herself up more in an attempt to stand, which backfired spectacularly when her vision blurred and her legs gave out.

"Whoa, hold it." Chuck reached forward and caught her, lowering her slowly to the ground. "Not so fast."

"I'll just sit here," Chloe agreed, getting herself comfortable. She pulled the piece of fabric away and looked at it. It was soaked straight through so she tossed it over her shoulder and ripped another piece off the bottom of her shirt. She saw Chuck staring at the bloody wad of fabric and she laughed. "It'll stop bleeding in a little while, trust me."

"You've been shot, it's not just going to stop bleeding." He moved his gaze from her wound to her face. "Believe it or not I've had my fair share of run ins with gunshot wounds."

Chloe tilted her head and really looked at him. Nerd Herder uniform aside, she'd seen the way he handled Dmitri and the other guy, in fact Chloe was relatively assured that if Dmitri hadn't been armed, he would have gotten the both of them out of there. He was hiding something…that's for sure. "You know, somehow I do believe that."

"So." Chuck took a deep breath. "You healed me?" he asked, stealing a sideways glance at her and seeing her torn expression. "Look, you don't have to explain if you don't want to, believe me I know better than anyone about secrets." Chloe let out the breath she'd been holding.

"It's not the secret thing," Chloe admitted. "That's kind of out already. It's just…you wouldn't believe me and I don't have time to try and explain it to you."

"Fair enough, but you'd be surprised at what I can believe," Chuck offered.

"OK." Chloe turned to face him, a challenging look in her eyes. "Try this one on for size," Chloe said, her tone almost daring him to believe her. "I used to live in a small town in Kansas, aptly named Smallville, home of not one but two of the world's largest meteor showers. The meteors that fell in Smallville however were not harmless pieces of space rock-they were these glowing green crystals we've come to call Kryptonite. Now Kryptonite has very special properties and when exposed to it for extended periods of time, people tend to mutate, develop certain abilities."

"Like healing abilities?" Chuck asked, following along.

"Like healing abilities." Chloe nodded in encouragement.

"OK," Chuck said, nodding, allowing the information to settle in his brain. He recalled the flash he'd had when he'd seen Chloe's tattoo, the file marked Watchtower. There were multiple mentions of the town called Smallville and greenK.

"This is where you either freak out or decide I'm insane," Chloe said, looking at him in earnest, waiting to be proven right but she would be disappointed.

"Huh, that's kind of awesome," Chuck finally said.

Chloe let out a surprised bark of laughter. "You know what; sometimes it really is kind of awesome." She pulled the second wad of fabric away from her head and smiled because the bleeding had finally stopped. "And sometimes-" She prodded the already closing wound a bit and winced. "It kind of sucks actually."

"I can see that." Chuck nodded.

"Can I ask you a question?" Chloe asked and Chuck nodded. "Why didn't you freak out or decide that I was insane?"

Before Chuck could answer the door swung open, illuminating the room and forcing Chloe to squint in the new brightness.

"Ah Miss Sullivan, you're awake." Aleksi stepped into the room. "I am sorry about that you know. I had so wished we could do this under different circumstances. You see I've been…intrigued by you ever since Lex brought you to my attention. Imagine my surprise that when we finally meet, you're clinging to the arm of Oliver Queen. Well after that, my hopes of the two of us one day working together had been dashed."

"Work together?" Chloe snorted. "Never."

"Never say never, Miss Sullivan." Aleksi walked further in the room and squatted down until he was right in front of her. He reached out to lift the edge of her shirt and instinctively she jerked her away. Pain exploded through every inch of her body at the sudden movement. Aleksi smiled and reached out again, this time grabbing the now torn hem and lifting it up. His free hand ran along the edges of the wound gingerly and he turned and looked at Chuck, glancing at the spot on Chuck's stomach where the wound should have been. "It's healing very nicely." He looked at his watch and turned to the doorway. "It's been an hour," he called out, "It's stopped bleeding, but it's not quite healed yet. Does that fit in your timeline?"

"It is on schedule. The reports we obtained from Luthor seem to be quite accurate." An elderly man stepped into the room, writing something on a chart and Chloe and Chuck both turned to look at him, and Chuck felt the familiar twinge as he flashed again.

_There were pictures, lots and lots of pictures, of bodies, some dead, some alive, all of them mutilated almost beyond recognition. _

_A leather bound journal, the words written on the page in tight precise handwriting, a language Chuck didn't understand, so the Intersect translated them for him. It was pages and pages of detailed accounts of experiments, gruesome, human medical experiments_,_ all of which resulted in the death of the subject._

_A file, the man's picture in the top left corner, he's much younger but there's no mistaking that it's him. It said he was a doctor, worked for the Soviet government during the Cold War. His experiments were meant to be attempts at creating the perfect synthetically bio-engineered soldier. They didn't work. _

"I'll need to check back in another hour," the doctor said, as Chuck came out of his flash and Aleksi nodded, releasing Chloe's shirt and standing up. He walked to the door without uttering another word to her and closed it behind him.

"That man," Chloe said slowly, staring at the door, "with Aleksi."

"Do you know him?" Chuck asked, swallowing hard, the images he'd seen in his flash making him sick to his stomach.

"No." Chloe shook her head. "I've never seen him before," she said. "But he's a monster. The things he did…how does one human being do that to another human being?"

"Do what?" Chuck asked slowly.

"The experiments, the torture," Chloe said, her face getting paler and paler with every word.

"How do you know about that?" Chuck asked cautiously. "If you've never seen him before?"

"I…" Chloe shook her head. "This is going to sound even crazier than the healing thing but when I looked at him just now, I saw these images, in my head, reports and pictures and…" She put a hand to her mouth, the images mixed with recent blood loss proved too much for Chloe and she lunged to the side, throwing up everything she'd eaten that day.

She felt her hair being pulled away from her face and a soothing hand rubbing circles on her back. "It's OK, it's OK."

"It's not, you didn't see…"

"I did," Chuck told her. "I did see. I just don't understand how you saw," Chuck said, confused.

Chloe wiped her mouth with the back of her hand when she was sure that she had nothing else to throw up. She braced herself and turned to Chuck. "You saw it too? You had the same vision that I did?"

"It's called flashing," Chuck explained. "I guess it's my turn for confessions. There was this computer built by the government, the first ever joint task force between the CIA and the NSA. It was built to house every scrap of information that both agencies had in a special encoded format and theoretically, it would have the ability to sift through that information, make connections that no one else might have been able to make." Chloe nodded in understanding. "Except the night before the Intersect was to go live, my old college roommate destroyed it, but not before he downloaded it into my brain."

"Seriously?" Chloe asked him.

"Seriously." Chuck nodded. "And now, when I see things or people, I flash and I am able to access that information, whether I want to or not."

"That sucks," Chloe said, thinking of the images that she'd just seen.

"Yes, sometimes it does," Chuck agreed with her.

"You weren't kidding when you said you knew about secrets." Chloe smiled and Chuck shook his head. "You've been flashing haven't you?"

Chuck tells her about the flashes he got on Aleksi's goons, on the device that Dmitri showed Chloe, what it said about the test groups. "It said Subject Beta 9.0?" Chloe asked. "Specifically?"

"Yeah, what's that?" Chuck shrugged.

"Not what, who," Chloe said. "It's me, it's the name that Lex assigned me at his 33.1 lab, a long time ago."

"So they're waiting on you?" Chuck said. "For what?"

"I have a few ideas, I don't really like any of them." Chloe shook her head. "Is that how you knew about Watchtower? Did you flash on me?" she asked him.

"On your tattoo." Chuck nodded. "It was caught on video at the Cairo museum about a few years ago."

"I thought I deleted all that footage," Chloe whispered under her breath.

"Not all of it." Chuck shrugged. "What exactly is Watchtower?"

"Watchtower is my code name," Chloe said. "For the JLA."

Chuck's eyes went wide. "The Justice League of America, you mean with the Green Arrow?"

"You know about the Green Arrow?" Chloe asked.

"Are you kidding, he's like a real live comic book hero. I'm a geek, of course I know about the Green Arrow, you know him?" Chuck asked excitedly.

"I know him." Chloe nodded.

"And Cyborg and Aquaman and Impulse?" Chuck asked, connecting the names in her files with the Metropolis superheroes.

"I know all of them too," Chloe said.

"What about The Blur? Some people say he's in the JLA but he doesn't really seem like a team player kind of guy to me."

"He's not." Chloe groaned. "He'd definitely rather go it alone, but he's a good guy and he tries."

"I can't believe you know the Green Arrow. This is crazy."

"Crazier than being held hostage by a Russian millionaire and his crazy pet, Doctor Frankenstein?" Chloe asked with her eyebrows raised.

"Touché." Chuck nodded.

"What's my file say? I mean how much to they know?" Chloe asked him.

"Not much," Chuck assured her. "Just your code names, not your real identities. They have theories regarding Smallville, about your exposure to Kryptonite but nothing concrete."

"Good, the last thing I need is the government on my ass." Chloe let out a breath.

"Wait a minute. You said earlier in the car that your friends would come for you, did you mean…" Chloe nodded. "I'm going to get rescued by the Green Arrow?" Chuck asked on the verge of hyperventilating. "Morgan is going to

be so jealous."

::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::

Oliver, Bart, and Victor walked through the Buy More , checking the faces of each customer that they passed. "According to the schematics there's an entrance in the home theater room and through the staff room."

"Someone might notice us barging into the staff room, so home theater room," Oliver said, opening the door and letting the others slip into the room, then following them. Victor closed the blinds as Bart locked the doors.

"Under the rug, there's a hidden latch," Victor said and Oliver tossed the rug away.

"Found it." Oliver opened the door. "Bart."

"On it," Bart said, speeding down the hatch only to reappear a minute later holding a cup full of frozen yogurt. "Dude, that place is like a labyrinth. It goes all the way across the street under the Orange Orange. No one was in, so I helped myself."

"Is it empty?" Oliver asked glaring at the frozen yogurt.

"No one's home," Bart said. "Go ahead."

"We should have at least thirty minutes," Victor said climbing down.

"How can you be sure?"

"Cause I led them on a wild goose chase." Victor smiled hitting the bottom of the ladder and looking to Bart for where to go next.

"To where?" Oliver asked, dropping down beside him.

"To us." Victor smiled as his phone beeped, telling him their hotel room had been breached. "In fact." Victor looked around as they entered the main room of the Castle and waved at the camera in the corner. "Smile. You're on candid camera."

Oliver and Bart looked up at the camera and frowned.

::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::

Casey looked up at room 1843 and then over at Sarah. She pulled the key from her pocket and slid it in the lock, shoving the door open in one swift move. Casey went in first and cleared the rooms as she followed behind, inspecting them further. "Walker," he called from the back and Sarah headed toward him.

When she entered the main space Casey tossed something at her. She reached her hand out instinctively to catch it. It was Chuck's phone. "He's not here." Sarah looked around. "So where is he?"

"I don't know," Casey said. "But they might." Casey pointed the image on the screen.

"Is that the Castle?" Sarah looked closer at the security footage. It was the Castle and standing in the middle of the room, looking up at the camera were three men. One of them smiled and waved. "How did they get in there?"

"By getting us in here." Casey looked around. "I thought it was too easy to find this place. If they could hack the Castle, they could cover their tracks, they wanted us to find them."

"So they could find us." Sarah's eyes got wide and she didn't wait for Casey, before hurrying out of the hotel room.

::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::

An hour later, Aleksi opened the door and stepped into the room. He crouched down in front of Chloe and lifted up her shirt. "Fully healed. Amazing. You know when Lex told me, I never truly believed him, couldn't imagine it. He too was very fascinated by your ability." Aleksi dropped her shirt and stood up. "But I don't think he ever really appreciated what use it could be to him…to us…to the world."

"What use is that exactly?" Chloe asked.

"Young Victor Stone was not our first attempt with the bionic transplants, we had many failures before he came along. They were simply not strong enough to survive the process. The healing time for operations like that is remarkably long and quite frankly, excruciating for the subject. As it is there was much more we had intended to do to Mr. Stone but we weren't sure he could have survived anymore. But with you…the healing time for the subject would be minimal, allowing us to do so much more."

"You have to know that I'll never help you," Chloe said confused.

"Of course you will," Aleksi said. "You had not met Mr. Bartowski until earlier today and yet you saw the blood and you couldn't leave him in pain, leave him to die when you knew you could do something about it, even if it meant exposing your secret. Frankly, that's just not who you are." Chloe could feel her teeth grinding because he was right. Sure Aleksi claimed that he already knew about her secret but he could have been bluffing. She could have saved her secret, left Chuck to die. She didn't know him, he wasn't anyone to her but she wasn't that person. And she knew that if Aleksi presented her with someone in who was in pain there was no way she could refuse to help.

"For another thing, you must ask yourself, if I know so much about you, how much do I know about your little team?" Chloe's eyes went wide. "Oh yes, I know about Oliver, I know about Victor, I know about them all. Even Mr. Curry and Ms. Lance, who are currently staking out my facility in Moscow, I believe." Chloe had to force herself to take a deep breath so that she didn't attack Aleksi right then and there. "I've known for a while, long before your clumsy attempt at infiltrating my home last night."

"Why wait to take me now?" Chloe asked confused. "The goons from earlier they said you needed me today, why not take me sooner?"

"They also said you were never alone, if you recall," Aleksi pointed out. "I had wanted not to make a big deal out of your disappearance and that is a hard thing to manage when one surrounds oneself with…superhuman bodyguards."

"If you know about my team, then you know they'll come after me," Chloe said.

"Oh probably, but they'll have to realize you're missing first and make the connection," Aleksi said as he walked to the door. "We should be long gone by then."

"And me?" Chuck asked, speaking for the first time.

"You?" Aleksi leaned against the doorframe. "I have a feeling that there is more to you than meets the eye, Mr. Bartowski and normally while I love a good puzzle, I simply don't have time to sort you out. If you're lucky, they'll be enough left of you for a dental match. Your family might even get some closure."

"Great," Chuck said, his throat suddenly dry. "That sounds….super." Aleksi smiled and walked out of the room.

"That's not going to happen," Chloe said when the door closed. "Chuck, listen to me, that's not going to happen."

"Yeah, except now that's all I can think about," Chuck admitted.

"Try and think about something else," Chloe told him. "Anything else."

Chuck nodded and closed his eyes, taking a few deep breaths. "There is something that's been bugging me. How did you flash earlier?"

"I've been thinking about that too actually," Chloe said, glad for something to take her mind off of Aleksi. "When I heal someone, I take their injuries on myself."

Chuck gasped in understanding. "You think your powers saw the Intersect as an injury?" He stopped. "But then…how come I still have it? When you took the bullet wound, I didn't have it anymore but I still have the Intersect."

"Maybe the Intersect itself isn't the injury, maybe it just caused the injury but for me to take the injury I had to take the Intersect too," Chloe offered.

"You mean, you think it's hurting me?" Chuck asked. "You think it's hurting my brain?"

Chloe paused hesitantly. "The brain is a very fragile thing, it wasn't meant to house something as powerful as the Intersect and I'd be surprised if it wasn't causing you any damage. But if that is the case then I've healed, it's fine."

"Now," Chuck said. "But the Intersect is still in there, just doing the same damage that it did before." Chloe didn't say anything. "How badly do you think?" Chuck asked in a whisper.

"I don't know," Chloe said. "But I know a doctor, he's sort of an expert in things like this."

"Things like brain damage from experimental computer systems?" Chuck laughed.

"Things that other doctors might not necessarily know how to handle," Chloe elaborated. "When we get out of here, I can ask him to take a look, he's also very discreet."

"I just might take you up on that." Chuck smiled weakly. "If we get out of here."

"Oh, we're going to get out of here," Chloe said.

::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::

"Don't touch that," Oliver screamed over his shoulder and Bart froze. "Don't touch anything," Oliver amended the order and he could hear Bart grunt in annoyance. "Are you in yet?"

"No," Victor said.

"You said thirty minutes, it's been thirty five," Oliver reminded him. "They'll be back any second now." Once inside it didn't take long to figure out the secret underground base was actually a secret underground government base. Except for around tax time, Oliver didn't generally consider the government the bad guy so he doubted these were the people that had Chloe. Although he was very curious now as to why there was a secret government base underground the Burbank Buy More. He had a sinking feeling it had to do with one Charles Bartowski.

"It was easier getting in this thing from the outside for some reason," Victor snapped.

"Maybe because I used the biometric lock before I left," Casey said from the top of the stairs to the Orange Orange. "I hope you paid for those," he said, using the very large assault rifle in his hands to point at the stack of frozen yogurt cups in front of Bart.

"Um…" Bart looked between Oliver who was slowly raising his hands and Casey whose finger seemed to be twitching far too close to the trigger and swallowed.

"Where's Chuck?" Sarah asked emerging from the hall.

"Probably wherever Chloe is," Victor said, not bothering to turn around, not terribly worried about the guns pointed at him. "And I'll gladly find them for you, if you'd unlock this."

"Not a chance," Casey growled.

"Bart," Victor said.

"Yeah, I'd help but I'm still trying to figure out what biometric is," Bart said.

"A fingerprint Bart," Oliver said. "He needs a fingerprint."

"Oh, I can totally do that." Bart smirked and before Casey could blink the kid was gone he felt a brush of wind next to him, a bit of pressure on his index finger and then the kid was standing next to Victor passing him a piece of plastic.

"How did you…" Casey stood up and hurried down the steps. "Where did he go."

"Can I put my hands down now? I feel a little ridiculous." Oliver asked. "And I don't like guns."

"OK, I'm in," Victor said happily, as the computer opened up to him.

"Step away from the computer now and tell me where Chuck is," Sarah said, cocking her gun and pointing it right in Oliver's ribs.

Oliver looked over at Victor who shook his head no and took a step away from the keyboard but Oliver tilted his head to the side, his expression almost an apology. He dropped his hands quickly, trapping Sarah's wrist between his forearms and twisting, until her gun fell to the ground and continued twisting until she was forced to spin away from him. He grabbed her wrist and locked her arm behind her back.

"Don't," Victor said, just as Casey moved forward. He turned to Victor, the rifle ready to go and Victor grabbed the barrel, pulling the gun right out of Casey's hands and then locked it under his chin, using the leverage to wrestle the larger man to the ground.

"I said I didn't like guns." Oliver bent over and picked up Sarah's gun, sliding it into his waistband before pushing her away. "You'll get it back when you can prove to me that you play nicely with others." Casey snorted in laughter and Oliver offered him a small smile. "I don't have Chuck, but I know who does. If you want to calm down, I'll gladly tell you."

"Why should we trust you?" Sarah narrowed her eyes at him and rubbed her wrist.

"We can trust him," Casey said, being pulled to his feet by Victor.

"You know this how?"

"Cause I know bad guys and he's no bad guy," Casey said.

"Thank you." Oliver nodded at him.

"Him on the other hand I don't trust." Casey glared at Bart. "In my line of sight at all times."

"Yes, sir." Bart offered him a salute, winked and vanished. He was back in a second with a fresh cup of frozen yogurt in his hands and sat down at the table. "Starting now."

"Bart, behave, we're guests here," Oliver pointed out.

"Not for long. If you don't start talking, you'll be prisoners here," Sarah said.

"Victor, the footage," Oliver said and Victor started toward the computer before pausing and looking at Casey who nodded his approval.

::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::

"What are you doing?" Chuck asked, looking up at Chloe who was balanced precariously on the edge of an old freezer chest. She was on her tip toes, reaching toward the air vent at the top of the wall. "Are you trying to climb out of here through the air vent? Cause I've used that trick a few times and it never ends well."

"I'm listening," Chloe said and motioned him over. He climbed up next to her and sure enough, he could hear voices.

"They're speaking Russian. You speak Russian?"

"I do now." Chloe tapped the side of her head. "This Intersect thing is pretty nifty."

"You learned Russian through the Intersect?" Chuck asked, his eyes wide. "You can do that?"

Chloe stopped and turned to him. "Well yeah, can't you?"

"No." Chuck shook his head.

"When we got here, and you fought those guys, how did you do that?" Chuck looked at her confused. "I mean, don't get me wrong, you just don't seem like the martial arts kind of guy, that came from the Intersect right?"

"What, you didn't know that being a Nerd Herder came with ninja training?" Chuck wiggled his eyebrows at her and she chuckled. "No, you're right that was all the Intersect. When I need it, I can access certain skills as long as they're in the Intersect; martial arts, languages, even how to play the guitar, but not actively…I can't just pull them up and use them when I want to."

"Yes, you can." Chloe smiled at him. "Come here." Chloe sat down on the fridge and he followed sitting across from her. "Close your eyes. I want you to imagine your brain as a computer desktop and all your knowledge and memories are stored in different files. There's a file for your friends, a file for your family, a file for your job, school can you do that?" Chuck nodded. "OK, now there's a file in there for the Intersect, do you see it?"

"Yes." Chuck nodded again.

"Open it," Chloe said. Chuck did, then he grabbed his head and doubled over as images flooded to the forefront of his mind. "OK, close it, close it," Chloe said, covering his hands with hers. "Open your eyes, look at me."

Chuck forced his eyes open and looked at Chloe. "OK, we jumped in the deep end there, maybe we should have started out in the shallow end."

"Maybe," Chuck said. "How are you doing this? How do you even know how to do this? I've had this thing for over three years now and you've had it for three hours."

"I've had practice." Chloe stood back up and angled her head to the vent.

"At having a supercomputer in your brain?" Chuck joked but Chloe didn't say anything. "Seriously?"

"Well it was technically an _alien_ supercomputer but yes," Chloe said.

"Oh my God, you _are_ serious," Chuck said and Chloe nodded. "So when you were talking about the brain being a fragile thing and not equipped to hold something like the Intersect you were speaking from personal experience?" She nodded again. "What happened?"

"It destroyed my memories, everything that made me…me. It almost erased me completely. I was practically a vegetable before they managed to get it out of me." She looked over at Chuck and saw the horrified expression on his face. "But this is totally different, that won't happen to you," she said unconvincingly.

"Right," Chuck said. "Because I can't even access the stupid thing."

"You can't?" Chloe smirked at him. "Cause we've been speaking Russian for the past three minutes now."

"We have?" Chuck asked and that's when he heard it. That distinctive Eastern European lilt to his voice. "I'm speaking Russian?"

"You are." Chloe nodded.

"This is so cool," Chuck said then froze. "Someone's coming," he said to Chloe and she hopped off the freezer quickly, just as the door opened.

"Natasha," Chloe said surprised to see her friend standing in the doorway. "I…what are you doing here?"

Natasha stared at her, but it was as if she wasn't really seeing Chloe. "Aleksi wants to see you," she said, her voice completely emotionless before turning around and walking back out the way she came. Too surprised to do anything else, Chloe followed. Chuck stepped forward but Chloe waved him off and continued after Natasha.

"Nat—" Chloe said as she was led up a set of stairs and the woman in front of her shook her head and held up a hand, silencing Chloe before she could say anything more. When they emerged from the stairwell Chloe was somehow not surprised to find herself in the kitchen of Aleksi's LA house, a place she'd been many many times before.

Chloe was led through the dining room, the living room and into Aleksi's office. Chloe watched Natasha walk over to the bookshelf and run a shaky hand along the bookshelf, looking for a particular book. When she found the one she was looking for she grabbed the spine and pulled. The bookshelf swung open and Natasha motioned for Chloe to follow her through.

Chloe found herself in a completely white room, the first word to describe it that came to mind was "sterile" which was apt considering it appeared to be some sort of operating room. There was surgical equipment along one wall, another was covered in schematics and hand drawn diagrams, and in the middle of the room a hospital bed on which there was a man, no older than Bart as far as Chloe could tell. His entire body was practically covered in bandages, half of which looked soaked through with blood and it was obvious from the moans tearing from his mouth, he was in pain.

"Heal him," Aleksi said. He was standing beside the gurney making notes in a chart.

Chloe tried to take in everything that she could, every single detail. "Here? Now?" she asked, her eyes darting over each piece of paper on the walls.

"You thought I would buy something without testing it out first?" Aleksi asked, closing the chart and sliding in onto the tray next to the bed.

"I thought Chuck was the test."

"Well yes, now I know you can heal gunshot wounds, interesting but ultimately unhelpful," Aleksi pointed out. "Heal him."

A small blueprint peaking out of the corner of the chart caught Chloe's eye as she moved closer to the bed and she didn't need the Intersect to tell her what it was, the schematics for the chip, the one they wanted to put into Victor, the one it seems based on the notes, they'd managed to perfect. "Go on," Aleksi said, startling Chloe and she shook her head.

"No," she said more firmly and took a step back. "I won't."

Aleksi looked almost amused by this proclamation. "You won't?"

"I won't heal him just so that he can become your mindless slave," Chloe spat.

"Then he'll die," Aleksi pointed out.

"Death's got to be better than that." Chloe said with more assurance than she felt.

"You're serious?" he asked and Chloe nodded again. "Very well," Aleksi said. "Take her back to the basement. I'll give you…half an hour to reconsider."

"I don't need a half an hour," Chloe said.

"We'll see." Aleksi nodded and Natasha reached out and grabbed Chloe's elbow, pulling her away.

"Natasha," Chloe pleaded with the woman when they got back to the basement. "You know this isn't right, you know whatever he's doing there isn't right."

"Chloe, I can't—" She cut herself off before she said anything more and this time Chloe reached out and grabbed Natasha's elbow.

"I know you," Chloe said spinning the woman around to face her. "I know there's no way you could have known about this before, I know you're not a part of this." Natasha nodded her head slightly.

"I'm not," Natasha admitted. "I swear, Chloe, I didn't know. I didn't know that he was going to take you."

"I know," Chloe said. "I need to get out of here, we need to get out of here," she explained. "I need your help."

"No." Natasha shook her head. "I can't."

"You can," Chloe said. "It's easy, you just have to call Oliver, that's it. Call Oliver and tell him where I am."

Natasha looked at Chloe, fear deeply etched into her face as she shook her head. "I'm sorry, I can't. I'm sorry," Natasha said. "I knew he was…I knew there were things that he did that I didn't want to know about, times I've looked the other way, but he's always been good to me and last night he was so mad, more mad than I've ever seen him. I can't. I want to help you but I can't."

"OK." Chloe nodded. "OK, it's okay," Chloe assured her. "I've got a tracking device on me, one they didn't find. He can use that. It's okay." Natasha left the room and Chloe collapsed against the wall.

"Are you okay?" Chuck asked her.

"No," Chloe admitted.

"Is there anything I can do to help?" Chuck asked.

"No." Chloe shook her head and offered him a sad smile. She sunk to the floor and Chuck got up, walked over and sat down next to her. She didn't say anything, didn't move so he put his arm over her shoulder and pulled her up against him. After a second she relaxed slightly and laid her head on his chest.

"Do you really have another tracker?" Chuck asked after a minute.

"I swallowed the GPS chip out of my phone," Chloe admitted sheepishly and Chuck laughed.

"Why hasn't anyone found us yet then?" Chuck asked quietly.

"I don't know," Chloe said. She wiped away the tears that she hadn't realized had fallen. "That just means we're gonna have to save ourselves."

::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::

"So you're telling me that Aleksi Yanovskiy is a criminal mastermind? The guy who makes those stupid little multicolored mp3 things we sell at the Buy More," Casey asked.

"He makes more than that," Oliver said under his breath, stealing a glance at Victor. "And you know Queen Industries makes multicolored mp3 things too and here I am."

"Good point," Casey said.

"Why does he want Chuck?" Sarah asked. "What does he know?"

"He doesn't," Victor said. "He wants Chloe, Chuck was just in the wrong place at the wrong time."

"Story of his life," Casey grumbled and Victor and Bart laughed.

Oliver stared at Sarah though. "What could he know?" he asked her.

"What?" Sarah frowned.

"You asked what he knew, as if there was something about Chuck that would make him valuable to Aleksi. Is there something you're not telling us?"

"Nothing that you need to know," Sarah said stiffly.

"Look, we're not holding anything back here. We've told you practically all our secrets and if there's something you're keeping from us, something that could be important, we have a right to know."

"You don't actually," Sarah snapped. "And none of this is helping us find Chuck," she said, before storming off up the steps.

Casey rolled his eyes and made a move to go after her but Oliver held out a hand. "I got this," he assured them going after Sarah. "Vic, get to work on that signal OK?"

"Sure thing." Victor nodded.

"So how long?" Oliver asked stepping into the Orange Orange.

"How long what?" Sarah asked, not turning around to look at him.

"How long have you been in love with Chuck?" Oliver stepped closer and Sarah turned around.

"That obvious?" She gave a humorless laugh and he noticed the tear streaks on her cheek.

"Not really. I just know how you're feeling right now because I'm in the same boat."

"Chloe." Sarah said and Oliver nodded. "You and she are…"

"For almost two years now." Oliver nodded.

"How do you do it?" Sarah asked. "How do you handle it when she's out in the field, knowing that there's a very real chance she could get hurt or die?"

"Well , generally she's not out in the field, only occasionally and always with me. But I know that the things we do, the life we lead comes with a lot of enemies who don't necessarily care about office hours." Oliver sighed. "I can't watch her 24 hours a day as much as I'd like to, so I have to trust her."

"How does that work out for you?" Sarah asked.

"It's not easy," Oliver said. "And I wasn't always very good at it. Something happened about a year ago, I got captured and she traded herself for me. I tore the world apart looking for her and nothing. I knew she wasn't dead so I realized that I had to trust that she knew what she was doing, and that she could take care of herself."

"What happened?" Sarah frowned.

"She came back to me." Oliver smiled. "And then I put a tracking device in her favorite earrings. So I'm not perfect at it, but I'm working on it. I mean that's better than locking her up in a tower, hell if I even suggested that she'd probably chop off my man parts." Sarah laughed. "So I know how badly you want to find Chuck, because that's how badly I want to find Chloe and we will find them but I need to know everything there is to know to do that." Sarah nodded. "I mean it's a little obvious by now Chuck's not just a Nerd Herder, but there's something that makes me think he's not just a regular spy either."

"There's this thing," Sarah said after taking a deep breath. "Called the Intersect."

::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::

Thirty minutes later exactly, the basement door opened and Natasha walked in again, only this her face was a mass of purple and green bruising. Chloe scrambled to her feet. "What happened?" she asked, grabbing Natasha's chin and examining her features.

"I asked….I just asked him what he wanted with you…what he was going to do with you." Natasha brought a shaky hand up to her busted lip. "He went crazy, he said if I wanted to know he'd show me and he did." Natasha sucked in a breath. "So whatever he's asking you to do, just do it. He's a monster. You don't know what he's capable of."

"I do," Chloe said sadly. "And that's why I have to say no." She pushed past the woman to the door.

"They won't find you," Natasha said suddenly. "Oliver, he won't find you."

"But the chip," Chloe protested.

"Aleksi's got this thing, an EM field he called it. No signals get in or out if he doesn't want them too," Natasha said. Chloe looked from her old friend to Chuck and then back again.

"So no one's coming?" Chloe asked.

"No," Natasha said. "I'm sorry."

"No, don't apologize, it's not your fault and you already went above and beyond." Chloe motioned to her face. "I'll figure something out."

"Well you better figure it out quickly. He's asking for you again," Natasha said, leading Chloe out of the basement. "It wasn't an act you know. I mean Aleksi suggested that I get to know you better but I really did like you." Natasha looked back at her. "I really do like you."

"I like you too," Chloe assured her with weak smile. "Too bad your husband's a megalomaniac whose probably going to kill me if I don't do what he wants."

"Yeah." Natasha laughed, then sobered up as she pulled the book on the shelf, opening up the operating room.

"Have you changed your mind?" Aleksi asked.

"No." Chloe walked further in the room. "Thirty minutes, thirty days, I'm not going to change my mind."

"OK then." Aleksi grabbed a chair and pulled it up right next to the bed and shoved Chloe into it. "If you won't heal him, then you'll sit here and watch him die."

"Are you serious?" Chloe asked, horrified by the prospect.

"I'm serious." Aleksi nodded grabbing Natasha's arm forcibly and pulling her away. "I'll check back in about an hour, though he probably doesn't even have that long." Chloe turned around and stared at the body lying in pain on the gurney. "Oh and I've stopped administering his pain medication, seems a waste if he's just going to die anyway."

Chloe gritted her teeth and held steady. She looked around the room, trying to find anything to keep her mind off of the man but that was getting increasingly harder as his cries of pain got louder and louder. They didn't seem to be bothering the guard in the room with them. Chloe almost envied him. She glared but he wasn't paying attention to her, he was glued to the computer in the corner, playing a game of solitaire.

The computer. Chloe realized if she could get to the computer, she could close down the EM field. She stared hard, trying to figure out the best way to get to it when the screen flickered. The guard paused, smacked the side of the screen and it went back to normal. Chloe froze though, she'd felt something when that screen flickered and she remembered Chuck telling her about how the Intersect could access electronics.

She felt her chest swell and her heart start beating furiously and she stared hard, thinking over and over again, "terminate current program" and after a second the game of solitaire closed on its own. She let out a small yelp of joy and the guard turned and looked at her confused then back at the screen. He grabbed the mouse and reopened the program.

She bit her lip, barely keeping her excitement contained. Yes, she could access the program but they'd notice it immediately and just put the shield back up, not only that, it would raise Aleksi's suspicions and she couldn't give this secret away, it wasn't hers. She needed a diversion.

The body on the bed let out a particularly painful gurgle and Chloe looked at him, surprised to find him looking right at her. "Help me," he whispered and Chloe closed her eyes.

"OK." Chloe nodded then turned to the guard. "OK," she said louder and he turned her way. "Tell Aleksi I said OK. I'll do it." The guard just snorted and walked out of the room. "I'm sorry," Chloe whispered to the guy, brushing the hair off his forehead. "I'm really sorry."

When Aleksi came back in the room he didn't seem surprised that she'd changed her mind. "I told you," he said to her. "It's just not who you are."

"You're right," Chloe said, positioning herself in front of the bed but making sure she had a line of sight to the computer. "That's not who I am." She knew this was going to be hard. She had to keep her powers reigned in long enough to close down the EM shield and then cover her tracks without making it look suspicious.

She could feel the power building in her belly, threatening to burst out but she held it back as she concentrated on the computer screen, shoving herself into the network. She heard the guy on the bed make a noise and she could feel the slow build of excruciating pain building in her own body that let her know she was taking his wounds on herself. She slowed it down a bit and pushed further, finding the EM program and shutting it down.

She couldn't celebrate just yet thought as the backup protocols started to kick in and she had to hurry to silence the alarm and then make the computer think that nothing was wrong, that everything was exactly how it was supposed to be and when the final program fell into place, she pulled out with a shudder, ready to just crawl away and take a nap but she couldn't she had to finish healing the guy on the bed. Her head was splitting, her body ready to give out but she pushed with everything she had until she had nothing else to give and everything went black.

Chuck jumped to his feet when the door opened and two guys shoved Chloe into the room. For a second it seemed as if she might stand on her own but after two very shaky steps, her body fell limply to the ground and the door slammed behind her. Chuck flipped her over, saw that her entire body was swollen and covered in cuts and bruises and her breathing was very shallow. "I couldn't let him die," Chloe said.

"Of course not," Chuck agreed. He had no idea what she was talking about but she kept mumbling it over and over as if she needed him to believe it. He stared at all her wounds, unsure where to even begin patching her up.

"But it's okay." She smiled slightly, grabbing Chuck's arm to force his attention back on her face. "I dropped the EM shield, they'll find us."

"You…how?" Chuck gasped. Chloe tapped the side of her head and laughed before her entire body went limp. "Chloe?" Chuck grasped at her neck, searching for a pulse but there wasn't one. "No. Come on Chloe, don't do this to me." Chuck grabbed her wrist but there wasn't a pulse there either. Chuck laid her down gently on the ground and closed her eyes before leaning up against the wall, pulling his knees against his chest and laying his forehead down.

He might not have known Chloe for very long but he knew she was as good as her word. If she said she disabled the EM shield and that her friends would find them, then he believed her. He just wasn't sure how he was supposed to break the news to them that she was dead.

::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::

"How many cups is that?" Casey asked as Bart started in on yet another cup of frozen yogurt.

"Don't judge me," Bart said to him. "I have a very high metabolism."

"You—" He was cut off when Victor jumped up.

"I got her," he said turning to Oliver.

"You got around what was blocking the signal?" Oliver asked excited.

"No, it just sort of vanished," Victor said and then there she was.

"Where?" Oliver asked.

"Aleksi's house in the Hills," Victor said with a smile.

"Let's go, Bart our gear."

"On it." Bart dropped the frozen yogurt and was gone.

"Gear?" Sarah said. "No, no way, you're not going in there. We'll do some surveillance-"

"We don't have time for surveillance," Oliver snorted as Bart reappeared with a very large duffel bag. "Aleksi is leaving, his plane is already fueled and waiting for him at LAX. He's taking Chloe with him when he goes. Now if he knows about Chuck, you can bet he's taking him too and if he doesn't, well there's no need to leave witnesses behind."

Sarah looked over at Casey. "You can never have too much backup," he said.

"OK, fine but you do what I say," Sarah said.

"Probably not." Oliver shook his head but he said it with a smile. He reached into the bag and pulled out his compound bow, setting it on the table. Casey looked down at it and raised an eyebrow.

"What kind of damage you think you can do with that thing?" he asked.

"The same kind you can do with that thing." Oliver nodded at Casey's gun and Casey looked slightly impressed by that comment. "I've got a spare if you want to try it."

"I'll stick to what I know, but maybe later," Casey offered.

"Are we going to sit around and play with our toys or are we gonna do this?" Sarah asked.

"Lead on."

::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::

The door opened and Chuck lifted his head up as Aleksi and the crazy doctor walked into the room. "Is she dead?" Aleksi asked. Chuck nodded before he could think about it and Aleksi walked over to her body and gave it a good kick.

"Don't do that," Chuck snapped, jumping to his feet again and lunging for the Russian but his bodyguards grabbed Chuck before he got very far.

"Doctor." Aleksi nodded at him and he crouched down next to Chloe.

"Don't touch her." Chuck struggled against bodyguards. "Don't you lay a finger on her."

The doctor paid him no heed and checked Chloe's pulse and other vitals before scribbling something in his pad. "Everything seems to be going right on schedule." The doctor stood up.

"How much longer?" Aleksi asked.

"It's hard to say." The doctor shrugged. "We'll no more, the more we use her."

"Use her?" Chuck spat out. "You can't use her, she's dead. You killed her."

Aleksi turned to Chuck at this. "I did nothing to her, she brought this upon herself," he said. "Bring her upstairs, we'll be leaving within the hour, we'll meet you at the hospital, Doctor." One of the goons released Chuck and bent down to pick Chloe up and carried her up the steps.

"Where are you taking her?" Chuck screamed. "Leave her alone."

The goon still holding Chuck shoved him up against the wall hard with a sneer, then left him alone in the basement. Chuck ran to the door and banged on it, slamming his shoulder against the wood, kicking it, screaming for someone anyone to help him when was flung open from the outside and standing in front of him was none other than the Green Arrow. "You must be Chuck," he said in his modulated voice, looking Chuck up and down.

"Oh my God, it's the Green Arrow. She said…but I didn't…"

"This is your superspy?" Oliver looked over his shoulder.

"Trust me, some days I have a hard time believing it myself." Casey pushed his way into the room and looked around the basement. "Clear," he called out and that seemed to shake Chuck out of his stupor. He lunged at the older man, throwing his arms around Casey in a bear hug that was definitely not returned.

"I've never been more happy to see you in my entire life," Chuck mumbled into Casey's shoulder.

"Get off me, Bartowski," Casey growled, pushing him away and Oliver walked into the room.

"Where's Chloe?" Chuck deflated a bit at this and bit his lip. Oliver pushed the hood off of his head and took the glasses off. "Where's Chloe?"

"Aleksi has her," Chuck said. "She…something happened and…" Chuck took a deep breath. "I'm sorry, she's dead."

Casey snuck a look at Oliver but the news didn't seem to hit the other man as heavily as he thought it would. "Where's her body?" Oliver asked instead.

"Aleksi took it upstairs, he said they'd be leaving within the hour." Chuck said.

Oliver put a hand to his ear. "I need a visual on Watchtower now, she's gone silent."

"Who is he talking to?" Chuck whispered to Casey and he offered Chuck an earpiece.

"_Silent as in…"_

"Yeah," Oliver said. "Find her."

"_I've got her_,_" _a deep voice said after a minute.

"Good job Cyborg, where are you?"

_"Living room at the back of the house. Watchtower's back online. Something's going on here though."_

"What?" Oliver asked making his way up the stairs.

_"I'm not sure_,_"_ Cyborg said. "_But it's definitely something."_

"We'll be there in two," Oliver said and turned back to Chuck and Casey. "You ready?"

"Let's go." Casey took point and led them out of the room.

"What did he mean Watchtower was back online?" Chuck asked Oliver who only offered him a small smile.

::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::

"Ah you're awake," Aleksi said as Chloe stirred to life on the couch, painfully pulling herself up to a seated position.

"Hope I didn't miss anything important," Chloe croaked out, rubbing her neck.

"Not at all, you're just in time actually." Aleksi nodded at Natasha and she opened the door, allowing two more of his goons into the room, followed by another man. The last time Chloe had seen him he was lying in excruciating pain on a hospital bed. He was looking much better now. "I was just about to begin the test."

"Test?" Chloe asked pulling herself to her feet.

"I've named him Adam 2.0." Aleksi looked at Adam who stared right back. "Adam, pick up the couch," he said and Adam walked over to the couch. Chloe hurried out of the way as he grabbed it by the side and lifted it into the air as if it weighed nothing. "Excellent." Aleksi smiled. "Toss it through the window," he said and without missing a beat the couch went sailing through the large window, slamming down a shower of broken glass onto the patio. "Now comes the real test." Aleksi rubbed his hands together and turned to Goon #1 and Goon #2 standing by the back door. "Eeny Meeny, Miny, Mo." Aleksi pointed from one man to the other until he stopped on Goon #2. "Kill him."

"What?" Goon #2 looked at Aleksi in surprise but he didn't have time to protest further as Adam took three steps forward, grabbed him around his neck and twisted, severing his spinal column and allowing his body to fall to the ground.

"No hesitation," Aleksi said walking over to Adam who was standing at attention, waiting for his orders. "No questions. He just follows orders."

::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::

"She was dead," Chuck whispered, watching the scene unfold from the second floor landing, his eyes never leaving Chloe's body, Chloe's body that was now alive and walking around.

"She does that sometimes," Oliver said but he didn't bother to elaborate. "I count eight guards along with Aleksi and Natasha."

"Who is that guy?" Casey asked Oliver watching as Adam killed with no pause, no remorse.

"Not who, what." A man had snuck up behind them without Chuck noticing. He turned quickly and then looked back at Oliver.

"That's Cyborg," Chuck whispered excitedly and everyone turned to him.

"Yeah." Oliver smiled. "I know."

"You have to forgive him." Casey grunted. "He's a nerd." Casey turned to Cyborg. "Now what did you mean when you said _'what'_?"

"He's like me. I don't know how. None of the other's survived the process, he shouldn't have survived the process," Victor said.

"Chloe." Oliver shook his head. "She healed him, that's why she died, that's what he wants with her."

"He plans to make more, a lot more just like Adam," Chuck said remembering the flash he'd had earlier, the one that said _Test Group C, 25 subjects_. "An army."

"And he's going to use Chloe to make that army," Oliver said with his jaw clenched.

"Not if we can help it," Victor said and before Oliver could stop him, Victor had launched himself over the railing, landing in the middle of the room below.

"Cyborg's decided to change the plan. He's gone in hot, we need back up. Priority number one is getting Watchtower the hell out of here," Oliver said over comms., launching himself over the railing after Victor, shooting Goon #1 with an arrow on the way down.

"Stupid superheroes," Casey grumbled pulling himself to his feet. "You stay here, Bartowski," he said before running for the stairs and heading into the action.

::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::

Chloe knew the second she saw Victor land in the middle of the room that Oliver wasn't far behind and she was right. He offered her a big wink, did a cursory check for any obvious signs of injury then jumped straight into the fight. She felt a hand on her arm and turned quickly only to see a blonde woman smiling at her. "You must be Watchtower," she said.

"You must be Sarah." Chloe smiled back.

"We gotta get you out of here." Sarah started to pull her to the door.

Chloe looked between Sarah and Oliver and smiled. "Not gonna happen."

"He thought you'd say that," Sarah offered.

"Look, we can spend the next fifteen minutes arguing about this, and you're gonna lose, or we can just skip it and join the fight," Chloe offered. Sarah looked over Chloe's shoulder and saw Casey getting the crap beat out of him.

"I can get on board with that plan." Sarah nodded, letting go of Chloe's arm and the two of them joined in the fight.

Chloe wasn't sure exactly what good she could do in this fight but she knew she wasn't going to sit it out in the back of a van. Sure she could take care of herself, if she needed to but these guys were huge, and armed and she was…not. She was saved the trouble of having to do anything when she ran into Aleksi. "Perfect." He grabbed her elbow and steered her toward the broken patio window. "We can still make our flight."

"What?" Chloe looked around confused. "What about…"

"The doctor's already at the airport." Aleksi stepped through the window frame and yanked Chloe after him, broken glass crunching under his feet. "The only other thing I need is you."

"What about Adam."

"I can make another." Aleksi smiled dragging her through the back yard. "And he has a job to do."

"What does that mean?" Chloe asked.

"Well I did promise your friend Chuck that he'd be unrecognizable didn't I?" Aleksi smiled.

"Natasha's still in there," Chloe protested weakly and Aleksi shrugged. "She's your wife."

"She's a big girl," Aleksi said.

"Awe honey. I love you too." Natasha stepped out in front of them, stopping them in their tracks before swinging what looked like an iron poker right for the side of Aleksi's head, knocking him out cold. "But I want a divorce," she said as he dropped to the grass, unconscious.

"Thanks." Chloe smiled up at her friend and Natasha shrugged dropping the poker on top of Aleksi's head with a dull clank.

"What can I say, he was getting a bit clingy, that's just not attractive," Natasha said and Chloe laughed. "We've got to get out of here."

"No, we've got to stop Adam." Chloe tried to go back into the house but Natasha stopped her.

"You can't stop Adam," Natasha said. "You don't understand, I heard Aleksi, he said something about a self destruct mode, it sounded like a bomb."

"He said Chuck wouldn't be recognizable," Chloe whispered before running back into the house. "He's a bomb," Chloe screamed out, but it seemed as if she was a little behind the times.

"Yeah," Oliver said, frozen in place. Everyone was frozen in place. "We kind of got that." Chloe followed his gaze to Adam. His entire chest cavity was wide open, exposing, along with his inner workings, a very intricate explosive device.

"OK, why are we all…frozen?" Chloe looked around at each of them, Bart's very skin seemed to be itching with the desire to move.

"He did the thing with his chest and well...it seemed like a good idea at the time." Oliver shrugged.

"Well I don't think it's motion sensitive." Chloe took a few careful steps forward. "Vic, how do we disarm it."

"We don't," Victor said, walking carefully up beside her. "It's fully integrated into his bio-system, it's not a matter of cutting the blue or the red wire. He was given a command, the computer part of him has to execute the command."

"So we change the command," Chloe said.

"He'll only respond to Aleksi," Victor cursed.

"Can we run?" Oliver asked.

"Sure, but the amount of explosives here, it'll take out the entire neighborhood," Victor said.

"Can you hack it?" Bart asked, zooming up beside them.

"I'd have to hard wire myself in, figure out his operating system…we don't have time." Victor shook his head.

"I can do it," Chloe said suddenly. "I can hack him."

"How?" Victor asked. Chloe looked behind him at Casey, Sarah and Chuck. It wasn't exactly her secret to tell.

"Just trust me," she said, moving him out of the way. She stood in front of Adam and took a deep breath.

"What is she doing?" Victor asked.

"She's…staring," Bart said.

"She's not staring." Oliver stepped forward. "She's…working." He tilted his head to the side and frowned.

"Looks a lot like staring." Bart said and Oliver and Victor smacked him in the head.

"It's not working." Chloe turned around to Chuck.

"Cause staring doesn't usually disarm bombs." Bart pointed out and this time he was halfway across the room when they moved to smack him.

"It's gone. I lost it," Chloe told him. "The Intersect is gone."

"How does she know about the Intersect?" Casey and Sarah turn on Chuck.

"It's a long story," Chuck said. "And I didn't tell her so much as she found out on her own."

"Chuck, you can do it." Chloe grabbed him and stood him in front of Adam. "Just go in there and change the command."

"Go in? How is he supposed to go in." Victor asked.

"I've only done it once and that was by accident," Chuck protested.

"Look, I did it earlier. It's how I dropped the shield, you can do this Chuck," Chloe assured him.

"OK, I can do this." Chuck took a deep breath, looked into Adam's eyes and suddenly, he was in the computer. "I'm in, I'm in," Chuck said excitedly. "But, what do I do now?"

"You need to try and override the last command," Chloe said.

"I can't," Chuck said.

"No you can Chuck, you just have to try."

"No, I mean I would if I could but I can't," Chuck mumbled. "There's no way to override the command."

"Can you knock out the chip?" Victor asked. "If you knock out the chip then Aleksi's no longer in control and Adam can take back over."

"I can overload it, burn it out maybe," Chuck said.

"Go for it." Chloe nodded.

Chuck braced himself and focused all his attention on the job at hand. The previously still Adam suddenly clutched his head and screamed in agony as Chuck stumbled back away from him. "He's free," Chuck panted and Chloe took his place.

"Adam, Adam look at me." Chloe grabbed his shoulder. "Adam, I need you to listen carefully."

"My name's not Adam," he panted. "It's Ryan."

Chloe smiled and nodded. "OK, Ryan. Well, there's a bomb in your chest and we can't disarm it, we need you to do it."

"I can't," he panted. "It's too late." He pulled away from her. "Just go, get out of here."

"No." Chloe shook her head. "No, there's got to be something."

"Look, you saved me earlier OK, I remember you," Ryan said. "Let me save you now. Go, get out of here."

"The neighborhood," Oliver said grabbing Chloe's arm.

"The operating room is lined, it'll contain the blast." Ryan stepped away from her and into Aleksi's office. "Go," he called over his shoulder. "Now."

"Chloe, now." Oliver pulled her away.

"Aleksi's in the back, he doesn't get to get away with this," Chloe said.

"I got him." Victor nodded and turned in the opposite direction.

"Bart, Aleksi's plane is waiting at the airport , inside of it is a man who is wanted on at least three continents for war crimes. Make sure he doesn't take off yeah?"

"On it." Bart nodded.

They got Aleksi loaded into the van and had just turned the corner when the blast shook the ground under them. Chloe closed her eyes, thinking about Ryan. "There was nothing you could do," Chuck whispered and she turned her head and smiled softly at him.

"I could have not saved him in the first place," Chloe offered. "I made him that."

"Either way he'd be dead," Chuck said. "And if you hadn't saved him, so would we."

::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::

"You don't go anywhere alone again." Oliver whispered.

"You were worried about me." Chloe smirked up at him as he checked her over for the seven hundredth time.

"Terrified actually, Sidekick," Oliver corrected her.

"Sorry." Chloe wiped the smile off her face. "I didn't mean to get kidnapped by crazy Russians you know, I was just…shopping."

"Shop online from now on." Oliver brushed a finger across her cheek.

"You can't keep me locked up you know," Chloe pointed out.

"Yeah, but I can stop shoving you right in the line of fire," Oliver pointed out.

"Oh my God, we're not doing this again. I made my choice, and it is my choice, not yours," Chloe said. "And you could try to forbid me but I think you value certain parts of your body far too much to try something like that."

"You know me too well." Oliver leaned forward and placed a soft kiss on her lips.

"Get a room," Casey grunted as he dragged the doctor through the Castle and shoved him into the cell with Aleksi.

Chloe smiled against Oliver's lips and pushed him away slightly, jumping off the edge of the table and making her way around to the other side. She pulled out the chair and sat down next to Natasha. "You need a refill?" She nodded to the coffee mug clutched in her hand.

"Nah, I'm good." Natasha shook her head.

"You doing okay?" Chloe asked.

"I'm not sure what okay is anymore," Natasha admitted. "So it looks like we won't be seeing each other for a long time. Sarah says with all the things I know, the things I've overheard through the years they can get me set up in Witness Protection." Silent tears rolled down her face and Chloe didn't know what to say, so she didn't say anything at all. "I think I'll ask if I can live at the beach. Aleksi hated the sand, said it always managed to get inside his underwear." Chloe laughed and then Natasha laughed, tears still running down her face and pretty soon they couldn't stop.

Casey paused as he walked back through and shook his head. "Women."

"You weren't going to tell me? How can you keep something like that from me," Chuck asked before storming off up the steps.

"I'll be right back." Chloe smiled and patted Natasha's arm before following Chuck out of the Castle and into the Orange Orange. "Oh, White Chocolate Mouse," Chloe said looking at the flavors on the board. "My favorite. Do you mind if I…"

"Help yourself." Chuck shrugged.

Chloe fixed herself a cup and then sat down across from Chuck. "I got two spoons," she offered him one and reluctantly he took it.

"So you were right." Chuck scooped up a spoonful. "Apparently the Intersect has slowly been eating away at the synapses in my brain. They're not sure how severe it is or how fast the damage spreads but they've been worried about it for some time now."

"And they kept it from you?" Chloe asked, eating a big spoonful of the frozen yogurt.

"Didn't know how to tell me." Chuck shrugged.

"I guess they don't make a Hallmark card for that." Chloe nodded. "They were trying to protect you, to spare you."

"I'm a grown man," Chuck said. "I don't need protection."

"I know," Chloe said. "Look, whatever it is, it's healed for the moment. You could come see that doctor I was telling you about. If he can't figure something out, then you'll just have to make a trip out to Metropolis every six months or so for a tune up."

"I think I can do that." Chuck nodded.

::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::

"Did you pay for that?" Casey asked as Chloe walked down the steps, her frozen yogurt cup in her hands.

"Bill me." Chloe snorted at him. "So we should probably hit the road. I want to check in with Dinah and AC in Moscow. We may have Aleksi but his research is still out there."

"You can't go anywhere, we have to debrief you, there are reports that need to be made…" Sarah said.

Chloe and Oliver exchange amused looks. "We don't really do reports, or debriefings," Chloe told her.

"Is it really necessary?" Oliver asked. "I mean this could just be our little secret."

"Oh no, Casey's really big on reports, he writes a report for everything," Chuck said.

"A house blew up, we used government resources to access your tracking device and we've got two Russians in our lockup. Not to mention the fact that the Intersect's identity and the location of the Castle has been compromised. General Beckman's going to want an explanation," Casey pointed out.

"Can you explain it without us?" Chloe asked.

"Highly unlikely." Sarah shook her head.

"What if you made a report, just…not to General Beckman?" Oliver asked looking at Chloe.

"What good would that do?" Casey asked. "She'd read it, find out anyway."

"Ah but you see, our General has more stars." Chloe smiled, catching on to what Oliver was hinting at. "You give him your report, he classifies it above Beckman's clearance, and everyone's secret is kept a secret."

"I think I can work with that." Casey nodded.

"You have your own General?" Chuck asked her.

"Just my Uncle Sam." Chloe shrugged and he raised his eyebrow at her. "No really, he's my Uncle and he's named Sam."

"Oh." Chuck smiled.

"How about you and I go get more frozen yogurt and let the grownups deal with the serious stuff." Chloe slung an arm around Chuck's shoulder.

"That is a plan I can work with." Chuck smiled and led her back up the steps. "So you remember my friend Morgan, the one I was telling you about, I was wondering if I could get a little favor. See it's his birthday next week…"

::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::

**One Week Later**

_"Are you in position?"_ Chloe asked, sipping her coffee and staring at the image on her screen.

_"This is ridiculous_." Oliver's non modulated voice came through the comm. _"I feel ridiculous. Why are we doing this again?" _

"A favor for a friend," Chloe reminded him. "I'm texting him now. Are you in position?"

_"Yeah, yeah, let's get this over with. There are probably some kittens stuck up a tree that I need to take care of_,_" _Oliver said, switching his Green Arrow voice on.

"Sarcasm is not attractive," Chloe said.

_"That's not what you said last night_," Oliver reminded her.

"It's weird when you flirt with me in that voice," Chloe told him.

_"Good weird or bad weird, cause I could always keep it on in the bedroom_,_"_ Oliver offered.

"I texted him, you're good to go," Chloe said. "And we'll talk about the other thing later."

_"You guys do know I can hear everything you say?"_ Bart asked and Chloe felt her cheeks redden.

"So I was thinking sandwiches and then Call of Duty marathon," Morgan said, holding up the video came before slipping it in his bag and tossing the bag over his shoulder as he and Chuck left the Buy More for the night.

"That sounds great buddy." Chuck put his phone back in his pocket and looked around the parking lot surreptitiously. "Anything you want, it is your birthday after all."

"You know that's right." Morgan smiled. Out of nowhere a man shot out of the alley, bumping into Chuck, spinning Morgan around and tearing the bag from his back before taking off without it. "Hey, my game!" Just then an arrow whizzed past his face, lodging itself in the brick exterior of the Buy More. "Holy crap." Morgan froze, staring in awe as the Green Arrow slid down the wire attached to the arrow and dropped down right in front of him.

"Don't worry guys, I got this," he said, before taking off after the bag snatcher.

"That was…holy…" Morgan looked between Chuck and the Green Arrow, his mouth hanging wide open and then he took off after him. Chuck just smiled then took off after them both. When he rounded the corner, the Green Arrow had the bag snatcher on the ground and was passing the bag back to Morgan. "Thank you so much, I can't believe the freakin' Green Arrow," Morgan squealed.

"Just doing my job," Green Arrow said. "I'll drop this scumbag off at the police station, you two just go on with your evening." Oliver grabbed the mugger and pulled him to his feet and that's when Chuck noticed it was Bart. He offered Chuck a small wink before Oliver shoved him down toward the street. "Happy Birthday," he called over his shoulder.

"Oh my God, did you hear that. The Green Arrow, the Green Arrow just wished me a Happy Birthday, how did he know it was my birthday?" Morgan asked.

"He's the Green Arrow, how does he know anything?" Chuck asked. "He probably heard us talking."

"I can't believe I just met the Green Arrow." Morgan jumped up and down. "I'm going to just go on record now and say it. Best Birthday Ever."

"Better then seventh grade when your mom rented out the petting zoo and the goat ate Suzie Marston's skirt?" Morgan nodded. "Better than our senior year when drove all night to San Francisco for the outdoor 6 hour Star Wars Marathon?"

"So much better." Morgan nodded.

"Good, Happy Birthday, buddy." Chuck clapped him on the back.

"Did you have to tackle me?" Bart asked rubbing his shin.

"I had to make it look good didn't I?" Oliver smiled.

"You enjoyed that far too much," Bart said.

_"Good job_,_ Arrow, I owe you one_." Chloe said.

"Yeah you do," Oliver snorted.

_"How about you meet me back at the Watchtower and leave the leather on?"_ Chloe asked.

"I call that a deal." Oliver smiled.

"I can still hear you," Bart reminded them again. Oliver looked over at Bart expectantly and the younger man just smiled and shook his head. "Uh, no I am not giving you a lift back to Metropolis."

"Why not?" Oliver asked.

"Cause I'm not contributing to this…debauchery between you and my Chloelicious."

"It's called a relationship Bart, you should get used to it," Oliver pointed out.

"I don't like putting labels on things. Besides, I don't think it's going to last." Bart shrugged.

"It's been over two years now." Oliver said.

"That's not that long," Bart said.

"We're pretty serious." Oliver smirked.

"No, that doesn't seem likely." Bart shook his head.

"She moved in with me six months ago," Oliver said.

"Well, rent can be quite expensive you know," Bart pointed out.

Oliver stopped walking and turned to Bart. "Are you saying she's using me for free room and board?" He raised an eyebrow and Bart shrugged.

"I'm just saying, Chloe's always been very frugal."

_"You do know I can still hear you right?"_ Chloe asked through the comms. _"And that you basically just called me a prostitute." _

"No, wait, that's not what…" Bart stuttered.

"Dude, even you're not fast enough to out run this one." Oliver clapped him on the back.


End file.
